We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tatiana Orr a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tatiana, thanks for joining us today. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?

The first client The Brilliance Studio Had was a welcoming stranger from Facebook market place!

At the beginning of our entrepreneurship /business owner journey we had zero experience, no mentor , no money other than Tatiana working at Cvs, Lonnie trying to come up with some ideas to create revenue and $5000 in back rent at our commercial loft studio.

We had put up ads after ads on Facebook and no one wanted to give us a chance they laughed at us, called us scammers and back alley dentists. It was very disheartening especially since our mentor/instructor kicked us out of the group chat due to a misunderstanding and left us in the dark…(but that’s a story for a different day.)

We almost gave up until this one man took a chance on us . Our first client was a man named Alton, we are so grateful for him for many reasons. He responded back to our Facebook ad and at first Tatiana thought he just wanted to make fun of us like the others but he was serious and wanted to come in that same week so we set a date.

When Alton came in for his service Tatiana and Lonnie both were nervous and had little faith and knowledge about what they were doing. Alton rooted for us and reassured us the whole service and when he saw his results he had the biggest smile ever and was so happy. We’re talking Big Grin from ear to ear! From that day The Brilliance Studio changed for the better!

We stopped thinking we couldn’t do it , we started researching more , we starting diving into the science behind ingredients, what’s beneficial , whats harmful and we started putting our content out there and our first viral video of 1.7million views was of the service we did for Alton on April 30, 2021.

Not only were we able to pay the $5000 of back rent in that same month but we had more than enough coming in to pay our personal bills , business expenses , supplies ,taxes at the end of the year and purchase our first car, and this was almost 4 years ago.

If it weren’t for Alton seeing our ad and taking a chance on two random strangers starting a business ,The Brilliance Studio would not and I mean WOULD NOT be where it is today.

We have recently reached out to him to offer a complimentary service free of charge and we’re waiting for his reply.

Tatiana, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

The founders of The Brilliance Studio are Tatiana orr and Lonnie Nelson.

They both took a hands on teeth whitening class in July of 2020 during the beginning of Covid , both working at Amazon at the time and looking to start a business any business really and it just so happened it was for a class they both never heard of or thought was a thing and took a shot at it.

The Services offered at The Brilliance Studio are

1.Individual Eyelash Extensions

2.Intimate Cosmetic Teeth Whitening

3.Mentorships.

Our services cater to those who take pride in their appearance and want to also start a business or add on to their established business portfolio.

We set ourselves apart from others because of two things. One being we are brutally honest , not the brutal honesty where you’re considered being a hard ass and overtly mean trying to get your point across. We are brutally honest in a sense we don’t sugar coat ,give unsolicited advice or criticism, gate keep or withhold info just because we want to or can. We give everyone the same amount of love and attention care and straightforwardness while also taking and expecting that same in return.

Two we are the home of Mentorships! We have a 2, 3 & 5 day mentorship where people from different states come to learn in-depth hands on training to service and help people fall in love with their smiles again! The natural way meaning with cruelty free , kosher , and natural ingredients . We can tell you every ingredient in our gels that we provide , we can tell you how to service your clients in a way they’ll keep coming back not only for a whitening but to see their fav whitening specialist again.

We have so much in store for The Brilliance Studio. It has taken us years to get to this point and we give credit to our Brilliance Fam across all major platforms like Tiktok , Instagram , YouTube, Facebook and Pinterest!

They’ve taken an interest in us because we’ve taken an interest in them, we show them everything ,no secrets ,no games just smiles and loads of info.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

How we built our social media following us what everyone says on how to build. Post daily and I don’t mean just post randomly all day everyday . Post your most crazy and best work or content. Get close up , show step by steps . Study your platform! It’s important.

Whatever service or art or etc that you create , look it up on that platform and what you don’t see in your search make room for it in your content.

For example : the candle wax lady on tiktok she makes candle wax that literally looks like food and it’s wildddd. She has grew so much on tiktok because nobody was doing that on any platform there was room for it and she saw that .

If there is a solution make your own problem and make your own solution at the same time.

I like food and cancels why can’t I have candles that look like food in my house. It’s awesome and people don’t realize just because it’s being done doesn’t mean there aren’t difference ways to do it. Creativity is a big part in growing your social media the some important aspects of growing to consider , pick atleast 1-5 . 1. Be mysterious 2. be funny 3. Be relatable 4. Be unique (mainly quirky or cringe 5.be openly opinionated ABOUT EVERYTHING 6. Crazy asmr videos are the new ocean noise for sleeping (lol) and a whole bunch more.

For us it was 3&4 we were and are relatable to the average person thinking it beginning their business journey , our audience saw us all the way at the bottom and grew with us , and we are definitely unique so is our content.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

What built our reputation was having social proof(google reviews ) and trust from our clients , posting content that showed our clients journey ,during and after . We portrayed ourselves as experts and therefore became that. Without that we wouldn’t have anything and I noticed a lot of people don’t place value in that sector which is odd. The fake it until you make it IS VERY REAL! If you say something over and over again you’ll eventually do it , become it and etc.

People like to do what they see others do so if you build trust with one person you potentially have trust with 5 more and it definitely grows (that what word of mouth truly is having the trust of one and that one person going and convincing others to trust you as well) . There is no “one size fits all” see what works ,test out different approaches and go from there.

We had to stop thinking just because we are scared ,nervous or going against the grain that it means we shouldn’t. instead feel it , all of it and then follow through that’s how to build a reputation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thebrilliancestudioacademy.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/thebrilliancestudio?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thehoneyandcocobrilliancestudiollc
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebrilliancestudio
• Other: Tiktok www.tiktok.com/@thebrilliancestudio